initialize a const array in a class initializer in C++

Nathan_Fellman_1084 0
Viewed 140551

I have the following class in C++:

class a {
    const int b[2];
    // other stuff follows

    // and here's the constructor
    a(void);
}

The question is, how do I initialize b in the initialization list, given that I can't initialize it inside the body of the function of the constructor, because b is const?

This doesn't work:

a::a(void) : 
    b([2,3])
{
     // other initialization stuff
}

Edit: The case in point is when I can have different values for b for different instances, but the values are known to be constant for the lifetime of the instance.

array-initialize c++03 initialization c++
10 Answers

Like the others said, ISO C++ doesn't support that. But you can workaround it. Just use std::vector instead.

int* a = new int[N];
// fill a

class C {
  const std::vector<int> v;
public:
  C():v(a, a+N) {}
};
pongba_1922800

It is not possible in the current standard. I believe you'll be able to do this in C++0x using initializer lists (see A Brief Look at C++0x, by Bjarne Stroustrup, for more information about initializer lists and other nice C++0x features).

Luc_Touraille_209840

ISO standard C++ doesn't let you do this. If it did, the syntax would probably be:

a::a(void) :
b({2,3})
{
    // other initialization stuff
}

Or something along those lines. From your question it actually sounds like what you want is a constant class (aka static) member that is the array. C++ does let you do this. Like so:

#include <iostream>

class A 
{
public:
    A();
    static const int a[2];
};

const int A::a[2] = {0, 1};

A::A()
{
}

int main (int argc, char * const argv[]) 
{
    std::cout << "A::a => " << A::a[0] << ", " << A::a[1] << "\n";
    return 0;
}

The output being:

A::a => 0, 1

Now of course since this is a static class member it is the same for every instance of class A. If that is not what you want, ie you want each instance of A to have different element values in the array a then you're making the mistake of trying to make the array const to begin with. You should just be doing this:

#include <iostream>

class A 
{
public:
    A();
    int a[2];
};

A::A()
{
    a[0] = 9; // or some calculation
    a[1] = 10; // or some calculation
}

int main (int argc, char * const argv[]) 
{
    A v;
    std::cout << "v.a => " << v.a[0] << ", " << v.a[1] << "\n";
    return 0;
}
orj_204800
user_78390

Where I've a constant array, it's always been done as static. If you can accept that, this code should compile and run.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

class a {
        static const int b[2];
public:
        a(void) {
                for(int i = 0; i < 2; i++) {
                        printf("b[%d] = [%d]\n", i, b[i]);
                }
        }
};

const int a::b[2] = { 4, 2 };

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
        a foo;
        return 0;
}
Daniel_Bungert_210930

interestingly, in C# you have the keyword const that translates to C++'s static const, as opposed to readonly which can be only set at constructors and initializations, even by non-constants, ex:

readonly DateTime a = DateTime.Now;

I agree, if you have a const pre-defined array you might as well make it static. At that point you can use this interesting syntax:

//in header file
class a{
    static const int SIZE;
    static const char array[][10];
};
//in cpp file:
const int a::SIZE = 5;
const char array[SIZE][10] = {"hello", "cruel","world","goodbye", "!"};

however, I did not find a way around the constant '10'. The reason is clear though, it needs it to know how to perform accessing to the array. A possible alternative is to use #define, but I dislike that method and I #undef at the end of the header, with a comment to edit there at CPP as well in case if a change.

user_1128300
Related